


who you gonna call?

by apollothyme



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Crack, First Kiss, Ghosts, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-09-15 13:08:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9236468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apollothyme/pseuds/apollothyme
Summary: “Who would win in a fight between a giant pigeon and Iron Man?”“Yura, it’s four in the morning.”(AU based on the prompt “it’s 3 am and I’m still in the library studying for finals and I’m losing my grip on reality and I think I just saw a ghost")





	1. ancient history and giant pigeons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Massive shout out to my bruvver [Gethin](https://twitter.com/reesefinchs) for the beta read.

“Who would win in a fight between a giant pigeon and Iron Man?”

“Yura, it’s four in the morning.”

Yuri rolled his eyes and turned over in his bed until he could see Otabek. “Yes, I know that as I, too, own a mobile device with a clock. I can’t sleep though, Beka. Please talk to me or I’ll die from boredom.”

Even though his friend couldn’t see him, Yuri still pouted at him, hoping that his pout energy would somehow reach Otabek and make him feel bad for Yuri.

He heard the sound of the bed sheets rustling from the other side of the room before Beka asked, “So you want to talk to me about pigeons?” 

“It’s either this or going to the library to study for finals and I’m too young and beautiful to suffer like that,” Yuri said, burying under the covers until every part of his body was cozy and warm.

Otabek chuckled in reply but didn’t say anything for a while. Yuri feared he had fallen asleep until he heard Otabek ask, “This pigeon we’re talking about; how big is it exactly?”

“Huge! Bigger than a ten story building. A single flap of his wing can send cars flying down the street.”

Yuri heard Otabek scratch the faint beginnings of a beard as he thought. “Iron Man has got his armor, though, right? Like he’s fully armed and ready to battle.”

“Yupe,” Yuri replied, popping the ‘ _p_ ’ and filling the otherwise quiet room with the sound of his voice. 

“Well, then Iron Man would win. A pigeon is still a pigeon, regardless of size. All Iron Man has to do is a fire a single missile and the bird is done for.”

“What if regular missiles don’t work on the pigeon because his wings are too thick. What then?” Yuri wanted to pop his head from underneath the bed sheets so that he could look at Otabek, but he was too comfortable to move a single centimeter.

“Does Iron Man have nuclear missiles?”

Yuri let out a yawn before he replied. “He does, but I don’t think he’d use those on a pigeon.”

There was another pause that allowed silence to submerge their room. By the time Otabek replied, his voice seemed to come from far, far away.

“Probably not. Goodnight, Yuri.”

All Yuri managed to mumble out was a meek, “Goodnight,” before he fell asleep.

The next day, Yuri woke up to the sound of something hitting the floor, followed by a blaring noise straight from the depths of hell. Hearing it reminded Yuri of the only certainty in life, the only thing he would never doubt, even when he got old and developed Alzheimer’s, Yuri would always know this: Victor Nikiforov was, and would always be, the most annoying person on Earth.

Groaning and burying deep beneath the covers did nothing to stop the noise coming from his fucking alarm clock, but that didn’t stop Yuri from trying anyway. The stupid thing was a gift from Victor and it had _wheels_ , which it used to sprint off Yuri’s bedside table every morning and go around in circles until someone got up.

“Yuri, if you don’t turn that thing off I’m going to fucking destroy it,” Otabek said. 

Yuri groaned louder. “Do it. Kill it,” he said. A few seconds later, a pillow hit him over the covers.

“It’s your alarm clock, which you set for _eight_ in the morning on a _Sunday_.”

“Yesterday you said you were fine with it!”

“I was clearly delusional at the time,” Otabek hissed. His anger would have perplexed anyone outside Otabek’s immediate circle of friends (mainly composed of Yuri), who believed Otabek was the pinnacle of serenity. Yuri, on the other hand, treated an angry Otabek in the morning like it was old news.

They had been sharing a dorm room for nine months now and during that period he had learned that despite owning up to the title of Chill Supreme during most of the working day, Otabek was not the literal opposite of morning person. The only reason why he had yet to destroy Yuri’s alarm clock was because it took him at least ten minutes to get out of bed and by then Yuri had already turned the damn thing off in fear of going deaf.

With a sigh, Yuri rolled off the bed, flopping on the floor with the sheets still wrapped around his body.

It took him a while to find the clock, which had somehow managed to get stuck between the suitcases underneath Otabek’s bed and grew louder with each passing second. By the time he got the damn thing turned off, Yuri was sweating like a philistine while Otabek seemed to have officially shut off his brain and given up on life.

“Come on,” Yuri murmured, pulling away Otabek’s bed sheets from his pseudo-sleeping form. “It’s time for us to be productive members of this hellscape society we live in.”

Otabek hummed and stretched on his bed with his eyes still closed. It was impossible for Yuri not to stare at his best friend’s half-naked body, which would have made sculptors in Ancient Greece weep.

When he was done stretching, Otabek opened his eyes and immediately found Yuri’s. “If you take that piece of shit alarm clock with you when we move into a new apartment I’m going to murder you in your sleep,” he said with his most deadpan expression, which was so deadpan it had won an award last year.

Granted, it was from the Phichit Awards of Greatness that were made, selected and attributed by Phichit, but _still_. An award was an award and Otabek had won his fair and square.

“Do that and the sound of my alarm clock will haunt your dreams forever,” Yuri replied.

Otabek laughed, sitting up on the bed. “What about you? Can’t I get you to haunt my dreams instead?” he asked. He was still staring at Yuri with a certain smugness particular to him, like he knew something Yuri didn’t.

“If I became a ghost and decided to haunt something it would be a five-star restaurant so I could mess with all their food,” Yuri replied. He was the first to look away, uncomfortable with looking at Otabek’s naked chest for any longer. He grabbed his clothes and toiletries before he made a quick escape to the bathroom where he could get dressed alone.

Yuri wasn’t embarrassed of his body. If anything, he was proud of it. He loved his lithe form and the way he’d retained his flexibility from his youth as an amateur figure skater even after his body went through puberty. He liked how his long hair looked against the sharp lines of his jaw, the way his collarbones jutted out when he wore loose shirts and how there was barely a kilo of fat on him.

Yuri was comfortable in his body. Christ, he had even participated in a wet t-shirt contest once1. He had no problems with his physical appearance, except when he was around Otabek’s bare form, at which point his mind started to conjure up far too many fantasies for him to handle.

Otabek, who looked like a down to earth demigod, was the source of all of Yuri’s wet dreams. He had been the source of all of Yuri’s wet dreams since the time they met, three years before, at figure skating camp. Back then, Yuri didn’t think much of his attraction, figuring it didn’t go past the superficial. He accepted Otabek’s friendship request and didn’t think much about the way his heart beat a little faster whenever he and Otabek managed to meet up.

He should have known the entire thing would come back to bite him in the ass later, after he was accepted into St. Petersburg University and Otabek asked if he wanted to share a dorm room.

By the time Yuri returned to said dorm room, Otabek was already dressed and waiting for him. “Want to go out for breakfast? I ran out of bread yesterday.”

Yuri rolled his eyes. “You can just have mine, you know.”

“I know, but I’d rather go out for breakfast with you,” Otabek replied as he slipped on his leather jacket.

Yuri sat down to put on his sneakers and pointedly refused to acknowledge the quiet ‘with you’ Otabek had stuck to the end of his admission. 

They grabbed a few pastries from a bakery near their dorm and bought matching cups of steaming black coffee before they made their way to the Neva River. They didn’t talk during their walk, both relishing in the early morning silence. St. Petersburg slowly came to life as they walked, but it was easy to ignore the chaos of the city when it was just the two of them and the river by their side.

“Who would win in a fight between Super-Man and a very large swarm of bees,” Otabek said, bumping his shoulder against Yuri’s.

Yuri grinned. “Are they regular bees or special ones? Are they from Krypton?”

“They’re not from Krypton, but they are special. Bigger than normal bees and their venom makes people’s skin swell up, even Super-Man’s.”

Yuri’s grin widened into a proper smile. They spent the better part of the next hour discussing hypothetical superhero fights, pausing only to take a few selfies together.

Nine months ago, the idea of sharing his living space hadn’t appealed Yuri in the slightest, but neither had the cost of paying for a single room in St. Petersburg. The expense would have put a solid dent in his budget and Yuri, who lived off his scholarships and his Grandpa’s savings, could have never afforded it.

Between rooming with Otabek, some random stranger or, worst of all, moving in with Victor, one of the mentors from summer camp and the source of most of Yuri’s misery, the decision had been pretty fucking easy.

Back then, there had been no way to know that Yuri’s distant attraction would grow into something bigger and scarier over the months, until it got to the point where Yuri couldn’t even change in his own room. That was something he had to learn and live with every goddamn day.

It was just his luck that Otabek had no problems with being naked around him. He had no reason to be, considering he went for runs three times a week, hit the gym another two and when he didn’t have time for either of that he got some of his weights out and exercised in their room. That sight alone was enough to turn Yuri into a beetroot and force him to excuse himself so he could go die in a corner.

Whoever said college life was easy was a fucking bitch.

Of course, it wasn’t terrible either. Case in point: this exact moment when it was just him and Otabek sharing chocolate croissants as the last traces of spring gave way to summer and the whole world seemed to be within reach of their fingertips.

Yuri didn’t even feel too bad when they made their way back to their room to study, a feeling that lasted until the sun went down and Yuri’s brain decided to take a massive fart and give up on him.

“I can’t do this, Beka. I can’t go on. If I have to spend another minute of my life reading about Plato’s huge dick and how it shaped the entire Renaissance period I’m going to die.”

“You’re the one who chose to get a degree in Ancient History,” Otabek said, giving him a soft cuff on the head. 

Yuri threw himself back on his chair and groaned. “I was a _fool._ Also, I thought we’d spend way more time talking about weapons and less time on Plato’s fucked up concepts of utopia.”

Otabek patted him on the head like one would a particularly whiny pet. “How many exams do you have this week?” he asked.

“Four. First one is tomorrow and I’m so unprepared it’s not even funny. You have five, right?” Yuri asked as he slid down his chair like a caramel melting under the sun.

“Yeah, but I already have half a grade in two of those so I should be fine.”

Yuri made a noncommittal humming sound and continued sliding until half of his body was on the floor. Otabek was taking Computer Electronics, which involved a lot of complicated maths and coding. Yuri couldn’t even try to understand any of it, but Otabek managed well; he was an organized person and thus he only had minor breakdowns once a month, unlike Yuri, who had them once every fortnight. 

“If I die you can have my comic book collection, but only if you promise to breakdance at my funeral.”

“Why would I _breakdance_ at your funeral?” Otabek asked, sounding shocked by Yuri’s random request, which was ridiculous. He should be used to Yuri’s nonsensical trains of thought after living together for so long.

“Can you imagine the look on everyone’s faces? It’d be hilarious. Plus, I know you’re good at dancing even if you only do it when you’re drunk and think I’m not watching.”

“Your grandpa would hate me if I did that,” Otabek argued.

“He would understand if you told him it was because of a promise,” Yuri said before something fell on his head. Yuri picked it up, needing a few seconds to realize it was Otabek’s wallet.

“Come on,” Otabek said. “We’re going out for dinner and then we’re going to the library. If I have to stare at these four walls for any longer I’m going to have a brain aneurysm.”

“I can pay for myself,” Yuri told him. In response, Otabek grabbed Yuri by the armpits to pull him up and tossed him his jacket.

“Let’s go to the Italian place you like. I’m in the mood for heavy carbs and calories,” he said.

Yuri pouted, but he didn’t have the heart to fight against such an enticing proposal. Garlic bread and a pepperoni pizza with Otabek sounded like heaven to him.

On their way out, they had the misfortune of running into Mila, who immediately threw herself at them.

“Yuri! How’s my little care bear?” she asked, making Yuri physically cringe.

“What kind of shitty nickname is that?” he said, but Mila brushed off the insult without even batting an eye. 

“Your under-eye circles look terrible, babe, and so do yours Otabek. I get it though, it’s hard to get any sleep during exam season,” she said.

Yuri resisted the urge to pull up his phone to check his face. Otabek hadn’t said anything about him looking like crap. He glanced at Otabek, who looked as handsome as ever to him. 

“Yeah, we haven’t been sleeping much. Yuri’s rolling alarm clock wakes us up early every morning,” Otabek said. It was an empty statement, but considering Otabek had once taken a workshop on how to make small talk, Yuri was awed by the effort.

“I know that thing! Even I hear it sometimes when you guys won’t turn it off for ages. It’s super annoying, Yuri.”

“It was a gift from Victor,” he grumbled.

Mila smiled in understanding. “Makes sense. Hey, are you guys going out for dinner? Mind if Georgi and I join you? We were about to go grab a bite to eat as well.”

Before Yuri could tell the old hag to fuck off and rot with Georgi the emo on their own, Otabek intervened on both their behalves. “Actually, we’ve already eaten. We’re just going out for some fresh air.”

Otabek looked up at Yuri, stepping on his foot to make him get the memo.

“Oh yeah, we’re just gonna walk for, like, ten minutes and then we’re coming back to despair some more and maybe weep a little. We’re totally full and just done with the concept of food in general, so we really can’t go out with you. We’re terribly sorry, but that’s just life so deal with it.”

Yuri got another step on his foot, Otabek’s way of telling him he could shut up anytime now.

Mila glanced from one of them to the other before she shrugged. “Alright, I’ll see you guys later then.”

They walked to the Italian restaurant in silence even though Yuri couldn’t resist stealing a glance of Otabek every now and then. He knew Otabek wasn’t the most social person ever — that was the understatement of the century, but whatever, semantics — but he also knew he was friends with Mila and didn’t much care for Georgi, which meant his lie and refusal was uncharacteristic. 

Yuri attempted to keep his mouth shut, managing for about ten minutes, a new record for him.

“So, any reason in particular why you didn’t want Mila and Georgi to join us?”

Otabek shrugged. They were walking so close together that the movement jostled both their shoulders.

“Lee told me that Georgi’s new girlfriend broke up with him and I don’t have the energy to deal with that tonight. Plus,” Otabek lowered his voice, making Yuri strain to hear him over the city noises. “I felt like spending some time alone with you.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that. God, he’s got to be insufferable right now. I don’t know how Mila manages to put up with him,” Yuri said. He didn’t mention that since the semester ended, three days ago, he and Otabek had spent roughly 71 hours in each other’s company because. Well. How was he even supposed to mention _that_?

Dinner was a quiet affair. They first discussed their upcoming exam calendar before moving to a happier subject: their plans for the summer. Otabek was going back to Kazakhstan for a month to see his family and Yuri to Moscow to see grandpa, but they were meeting up afterwards to go on a roadtrip together. Their plan was to fly to Kiev, rent a motorbike and then drive through Belarus, Poland, and Germany. Their end goal was Amsterdam, although they might not make it, depending on how long they spent in the cities they passed through.

Afterwards, they finished their meal, they made a quick stop at their dorm room to pick up their study materials and headed down to the library, which was open for twenty-four hours during exams. Like Yuri’s grandpa always said, small blessings are holes in the cheese of life, whatever the fuck that meant.

Once at the library, Yuri took his time setting up on a table near the windows. He turned on his laptop, plugged it into a power outlet, placed all of his books on the table alongside the notes he had made on each one and overall took as long as humanly possible to do each and every task so that he could avoid doing actual work.

Otabek watched the entire process with a smile on his face but refrained from commenting, even when Yuri left to get them their fourth cup of coffee of the day. By the time Yuri sat down, Otabek had already solved a couple of exercises, so he decided to follow his lead and tried to study.

Key word being _tried_ .

“I give up,” Yuri said, dumping his head on the table as he spread his arms to the side.

“You started ten minutes ago,” Otabek replied. Yuri looked at him through his bangs and saw Otabek hadn’t even glanced away from his work before he replied. Bastard.

“My brain is dead. I see all the words but nothing registers anymore. I’ve been abandoned by my own psyche.”

Otabek snorted, writing a final note on a piece of paper before looking up. “Yurochka, I would associate many things with you, but being a quitter is not of them.”

Even though the trick Otabek was playing on him could be seen all the way from space, Yuri still fell for it — hook, line and sinker. He couldn’t be sure of what did it for him, if it was the words themselves or just the fact that it was Otabek saying them. All he knew was that he couldn’t resist a challenge like that, not then and maybe not ever.

So Yuri studied. He worked. He gave it his best and until he heard a noise.

“What is that?” he asked, putting down his book so he could focus on the sound.

“What is what?”

“That noise. Can’t you hear it? Sounds like chalk being scraped on a blackboard.”

Otabek looked at him and strained to hear it as well, his eyebrows tilting upwards when he finally heard it. “Weird,” he said.

Yuri got up and looked around the room, noticing it was empty save for them. Weird, considering everyone in their dorm was having a collective freakout over the upcoming weeks. Yuri would have thought at least some of them would be here. 

“We’re alone,” he commented.

Otabek looked around as well. “There might be people in the desks behind the bookcases.”

Yuri hummed in agreement but didn’t say anything further. The noise was growing louder, but he couldn’t place where it was coming from. It seemed to be all around them and nowhere at once. The whole thing was creepy as fuck, which meant there was only one thing they could do about it.

“Let’s go investigate.”

Otabek stared at him, making this hilarious expression that was a mix between horrified and sorrowful. He then sighed, closed his laptop and got up without any arguments, which Yuri had already expected. Despite the general belief that Otabek was a Calm and Chill individual, Yuri knew that deep down he was an adrenaline junkie just like him. After all, that was one of the many reasons why they got along so well.

“It’s probably just people having sex in a corner,” Otabek said, making Yuri snort.

“On what? A bed of nails? Nobody sounds like this when they’re having sex.” Yuri paused and strained his ears again. The noise was coming from the upper floors of the library. “I bet it’s a ghost. During orientation week a girl told me the whole university is a hotspot for supernatural activity.”

“Was it the girl who was high all the time or the one who wore her future funeral clothes?”

There was an awkward pause before Yuri admitted the truth. “The latter, but that doesn’t mean she was lying.”

“That girl gave you a copy of the Satanic Bible. I don’t think she’s a reliable source of information.”

“That book is grossly misinterpreted, okay? It’s not that bad,” Yuri argued, although logically he knew there was no way to salvage this conversation. That book _had_ been weird, the girl even weirder, and the only reason Yuri had hung out with her in the first place was because he thought her band t-shirts collection was cool.

Then one day she invited him to join her in an actual, literal satanic ritual and Victor had threatened to call his grandpa if he went while Otabek just gave him a _look_ and Yuri thought nah, definitely not worth it.

“Whatever you say,” Otabek replied.

Yuri huffed but shut up. He could tell they were getting closer to the noise, although he wasn’t sure where it came from yet. Stalking through the library at night made him get goosebumps on the back of his neck. With half the lights turned off and the place deserted, it was like they were trapped in a straight-to-DVD horror movie.

As they walked, they saw a faint blue glow coming from one of the bookshelves near the end of the room.

“The noise is coming from there,” Yuri remarked. 

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Otabek said. Yuri nodded in reply even though they were both fixated on the light. The noise was much louder now, but also deeper. What had started as a high pitched whine had turned into great tumult. Yuri thought he heard a growl at one point, but that may have been his subconscious playing games with him.

“It’s probably what you said, just a couple having sex.” Yuri wasn’t sure who he was trying to convince, himself or Otabek.

“Probably.”

As they took their last steps and turned to look at the light, Yuri may or may not have grabbed Otabek’s jacket sleeve. It was just to make sure Otabek was fine, of course. Not because he was in the least bit frightened, which he obviously wasn’t.

Chances were, this was just a harmless prank and not a two-meter tall creature with black eyes and blood flowing out of its mouth, floating above ground as it picked up books from the bookshelf and threw them out. Said creature certainly didn’t look like a rotting person and it definitely didn’t screech when it saw them, making their fucking ears pop.

Or, you know, it was exactly that.

“Run!” Otabek yelled, grabbing Yuri’s hand and pulling them back the way they came. It was the easiest order Yuri had ever followed in his life.

 

 

 

 

 

1 It was Phichit’s idea, of course. He organized it as an event for charity, but Yuri had no intentions of participating on something so ridiculous before he saw Victor bragging on social media that he was obviously doing it for the children. Yuri didn’t even think before he called a confused Phichit and yelled until he was allowed to sign up 2.

2 He later learned this had been Phichit’s plan from the start.


	2. spirited away bracelets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to [marshmallowdramatic](http://marshmallowdramatic.tumblr.com/) for giving this chapter a beta read!

They ran through the entire library, down two sets of stairs and then up another one when the ghost proved it could materialize through walls. They don’t have a specific goal other than getting as far away from the giant, terrifying ghost-demon-spirit following them. This was proving rather difficult since said ghost-demon-spirit could _go through fucking walls_.

On the bright side, at least they were faster than the damn thing, which moved at the pace of a snail on steroids.

Yuri let Otabek guide them through winding corridors filled with books while he tried to recall all the horror movies he had seen. Plenty of them featured ghost-like creatures like this one, but Yuri couldn’t for the life of him remember how the humans won. He was a history nerd; he had to know at least one useful thing about ghosts. 

“We can’t keep running,” he yelled. 

“Any suggestions?” Otabek replied. They dashed up another flight of stairs. Any further up and they’d reach the roof. “We’re too far away from the exit.”

Yuri looked around. They were in the literature floor, his favorite. There was nowhere to go other than the way they came or through a window. Unless—

“In here.” Yuri pulled Otabek into a small study room with no windows just as the ghost’s head rose from the floor. “I don’t think it saw us.”

“What if it can sense us?” Otabek asked, shrugging when Yuri glared at him. “What? It’s a ghost. It’s bound to have supernatural powers.”

“Shut up,” Yuri whispered.

Their breaths caught in their lungs when they heard the ghost move closer to them. The rumbling they’d heard earlier seemed to be the sound it made as it breathed — _and since when did ghosts need to breathe?_ — and the growling was just, well, growling. Yuri grabbed Otabek by both the arms and pulled him close, needing something to ground him. He couldn’t help the tremors that wracked through his body, a physical manifestation of his fear, but he felt better when he put his head against Otabek’s chest and noticed his friend wasn’t faring much better.

And then nothing happened. The study room remained coated in darkness as the noise dissolved into silence after a few lingering seconds. Yuri exhaled into Otabek’s chest. He took a step back but didn’t get far. He found that he neither could nor wanted to let go of Otabek, so he didn’t.

Otabek, with his arms still wrapped around Yuri’s waist, made no move to dislodge them.

“Okay, so, what the fuck was that?” Yuri asked.

“No clue. A ghost, maybe?”

“Or a demon. Did you see its eyes? I watched enough _Supernatural_ to know what that’s all about.”

“Demons would probably be able to sense us. And they wouldn’t float around.”

Yuri tilted his head to the side as he thought it. “Fair point. Let’s say it’s a ghost. What now? The exit is still too far away and we’re _not_ jumping out the window,” Otabek said as if reading Yuri’s mind.

“We could,” Yuri argued.

Otabek gave him the _look_. “I’m not letting you do that,” he said.

Yuri found himself shrinking underneath he judgmental force of that gaze. “Yeah, alright. That was a stupid idea anyway. Our best bet is if we find a way to distract Big, Mean and Fugly and then make a break for it.”

“I could do that.” Otabek’s voice was below a whisper, but in the stillness of their hiding spot, he might as well have been shouting. 

“What?” Yuri asked, although he already knew what he meant. Otabek, who always so polite and honest and _good_ ; who always went above and beyond for Yuri and others, constantly putting other people’s well-being above his as if he didn’t matter, as if no one cared.

“I could distract the ghost while you ran away. It would work. You would get safety and—“

“And what? Just leave you here to _die_? Are you out of your fucking mind?” Yuri struggled to keep his voice down. His grip on Otabek’s arms got so tight it was bound to leave bruises, but Yuri had no intentions of letting go.

“I might make it. We don’t even know for sure if that ghost will harm me.“

“Otabek Nurzhan Altin, you shut the fuck right now or I will make you shut up,” Yuri hissed, shaking Otabek’s shoulders when he opened his mouth to reply. “I mean it! I’m not letting you sacrifice yourself from me like you’re some kind of Prince Charming and I’m Cinderella. We’re both getting out of this place alive. I won’t accept any other option.”

“Okay.”

Yuri, who had expected more of argument, tried to steamroll over him again. “And don’t you try talking me out of this because— oh wait, did you ‘okay’?”

“Yeah,” Otabek said, smiling at him.

“Oh. Well, good then.” Yuri gave one Otabek’s arms a single, awkward pat. “Glad we got that out the way.” 

When Otabek tried to take a step back, Yuri instantly reached to pull him back before he realized Otabek was just trying to turn on the light switch. Feeling like an idiot, Yuri took a step back and tried to slow down his breathing. At least now he knew that even during life and death situations he still had time to embarrass himself. 

Yuri was startled from his own thoughts when Otabek moved into his field of vision again. “Should we consider fighting an option?” he asked. 

“Probably not,” Yuri admitted. “We don’t know what would and wouldn’t work, and in the time it’ll take us to find out we’d almost certainly get ourselves killed. Distracting it, _together_ , and then making a break for it, _together_ , is our best option.”

Otabek smiled, seemingly amused by the emphasis put on the ‘together’ part. Yuri resisted the urge to flip him off. Damn Kazakh princes and their idiotic, chivalrous, suicidal ways. 

“I trust you,” he said. 

Yuri nodded like he hadn’t expected any other answer.

“There’s an emergency exit on the first floor, but to get there we’ll need to lure away the ghost. If we move quietly to some place on the other side of the library, like the comic book corner, and we throw down a couple bookshelves, we can probably get the ghost to go there while we sneak away. The ghost won’t follow us out the building, so we’ll be safe.”

Otabek raised one eyebrow in question. “What makes you think it won’t follow us out of here?”

“Listen, who’s the expert on horror movies here?”

“Right.” Otabek scratched the back of his head. “Well, I did say I trust you.”

“As you should. I’m not letting us die here. I promise,” Yuri declared.

Otabek squeezed his waist. “Alright.” He took a deep breath. “Let’s do this.”

Yuri bit down on his bottom lip and disentangled himself from Otabek. He didn’t feel scared, or, at least, not as much as he would have expected. He was resolute. Strengthened. For whatever reason, the experience remembered him of this time on the ice, the few competitions he entered before he injured his ankle and decided to give up skating for good. 

Back then, Yuri had always felt like it was him against the world. He carried so much weight on his shoulders and he always treated the ice like a battlefield. It used to be the only place where he dared to let go and be with no fears.

Back then, he had been so young and didn’t yet know who he fought for, but now he knew. Now he would never doubt such a simple thing again.

_Fuck it._

As Otabek took a step towards the door, Yuri grabbed him by the wrist and spun him back around. He took a leap of courage and grabbed the back of Otabek’s neck, leaning down to kiss him. Otabek didn’t move for the longest time, inert save for his breathing, which Yuri could feel against the side of his face.

He had begun to regret his actions when Otabek suddenly latched onto his waist again and pulled Yuri against him so that they were flushed together. This time, Otabek was the one to kiss him while Yuri gripped the short hairs growing on the back of his head, scratching the scalp with his nails. He couldn’t quite believe what was happening and didn’t dare push for more, although, if he could have had it his way, he would have spent the rest of the night making out with Otabek, creepy ghosts be damned. 

When they parted, Otabek’s pupils were blown out of proportion, making his brown eyes look pitch black, and his chest heaved quickly, as if he had just come out of a run.

“What?” he asked. The question was a bit worrying, but when Yuri tried to put some space between them, Otabek’s tightened the grip he had on his waist and shook his head.

“I’m not letting us die here,” Yuri repeated, “but on the off chance that something does happen, I refuse to leave this ass world without having at least kissed you first.”

“Oh,” Otabek said. 

Yuri waited for him to say or do something else, but Otabek remained silent.

“Did I break your brain?” he asked. 

“Maybe,” was the reply he received. Otabek sounded like he was in a daze, but then he smiled and kissed Yuri, sending out the window any of their remaining capacities for logical thought.

Alright, maybe that was a bit much, but Yuri wasn’t kidding when he said that he couldn’t even remember his own name after Otabek bit on his bottom lip to deepen the kiss.

When they managed to put some space between them for a second time, Yuri was the one who was in the daze as Otabek grinned up at him. “We’re going to discuss this later. I’m not letting you go off the hook without a decent explanation first, one that involves talking to each other about our _feelings_ and everything,” he said.

Yuri grimaced. Or he tried to. It was kind of hard to grimace when you were smiling from ear to ear. “I can do that.”

Otabek took one of his hands and they walked out of the study room together, ready to face all the freaking ghosts the world threw at them. Bastards, the whole lot.

They moved through the shadows, following each other step by step. Halfway down the first staircase, Otabek mused out loud, “Who would have imagined it would take a ghost and a near-death experience to make you finally kiss me?”

Yuri glared at him. Of all fucking times to have this conversation, Otabek just had to pick this one.

Despite the general idiocracy of talking while trying to sneak through a dead silent library, Yuri obviously still replied to his dig. “What about you? When were you planning on doing something?”

Otabek shook his head. “I’ve liked you for years. It’s not my fault it took you so long to catch up.”

Yuri wanted to argue further, but the words got stuck in his throat after he digested Otabek’s confession.

Well. _Well_. Well.

They definitely needed that discussion on feelings now. “Let’s just get the fuck out of here so I can kiss you again.”

They were passing through the second floor when they heard noises coming from the Journalism corner. Yuri hastened his pace, but he was forced into a stop when Otabek paused.

“What is it? We don’t have time. If the ghost is on the floor, we can make it to the exit without needing any distractions.” Yuri looked at Otabek and noticed the way he was scrunching his eyebrows the way he always did when he was thinking hard about something.

“That doesn’t sound like the ghost though.”

Yuri held his breath, straining his ears until he picked up the noise with no interferences. Otabek was right. This didn’t sound like the ghost at all. He heard a gasp and a couple of moans before a name was sung in the air by one of the few voices Yuri would recognize even on his deathbed.

“Oh. My. Fucking. God,” Yuri hissed. He set off in a sprint to where the voices were coming from, dragging Otabek with him. “Of all fucking times and of all fucking places, those two idiots just had to be here.”

“It could be a trap,” Otabek said.

_A bit too late for that now_ , Yuri thought, turning a corner just in time to see the ghost floating their way from the opposite of the library. Yuri ran faster, turned another corner and came to a dead stop when he finally spotted the reason for his entire life’s demise.

“Victor! Katsudon! What the fuck are you two doing?” he shouted.

Victor groaned and stepped away from Katsudon. Good. “Well, young Yurio, you might not know this but when two people love each other very much—“

Victor’s stupid rambling was cut short by a flying book that smacked him right on the forehead. Quite an accomplishment, considering Yuri was so enraged his vision had blurred at the edges.

“You fucking idiots, there is a literal ghost in this piece of shit library right now trying to _murder_ us and all you two can think about is sucking each other’s dicks!”

There was a pause before Victor yelled back, “This is how I would want to die anyway!”

“Fucking moron,” Yuri ground out. His voice was swallowed by the sound of Big, Mean and Fugly roaring as it got closer to them.

“We need to go,” Otabek yelled. They set off in another sprint, this time in Yuuri and Victor’s direction. Apparently, they weren’t leaving them behind to die a painful, miserable death. Pity.

“What’s happening?” Katsudon asked them. He was quicker on the job than Victor and had started running right after they did, which meant he was two meters ahead of them.

“I told you, there’s a ghost trying to kill us!” Yuri yelled. Since he couldn’t fight the ghost, he decided to release his frustration by grabbing a book at random and throwing it at Katsudon.

“What kind of ghost?” Katsudon asked. Yuri reached for another book but was thrown off by balance by Otabek pulling his wrist.

“It’s two meters tall, it glows and it’s floating. It’s wearing a shredded suit with a huge hole in the chest and his eyes are completely black. Also, it growls.”

“Ah, one of those,” Katsudon said, as casual as can be, acting like they were discussing the lunch menu at the cafeteria and not _the giant, terrifying ghost-monster-creature trying to McFreaking murder them._

“So you know what it is?” Otabek asked. He sounded coherent and determined, which was a damn good thing since all Yuri could think about was throwing more books at Katsudon and Victor, who at least had the decency to look as confused as Yuri.

“It’s just a lost spirit. They usually wander around at night trying to spook people, but they’re rarely this aggressive. Something must have happened,” Katsudon explained.

Even though his English was perfect, Yuri still didn’t understand a word he said. His main problem was at the root of the issue, related the fact that, of all people in the known universe, Katsuki Yuri, the guy who covered his eyes with Victor’s hands whenever he watched a horror movie, turned out to be a goddamn expert on ghosts.

How was it even possible? The guy didn’t even make it past the first night when he and Yuri tried to play Five Nights at Freddy’s together.

The detour they took to save Victor and Katsudon forced them to discard their initial plan, throwing them off-track. This was a worrisome thought since the library didn’t exist in a celestial plane of existence with no known bounds. Their little group of scramblers was about to reach the end of the line, literally, and there was nowhere left to go.

Yuri thought about their options, letting Otabek guide him. Maybe they could jump out the window? The odds of them dying from a second floor fall seemed rather low and if Victor broke the fall, they probably wouldn’t break any bones.

As he was about to suggest this course of action, Otabek asked, “Is there any way to stop it?”, which made Katsudon slow down until he was at a normal walking pace. Yuri didn’t even feel bad when he couldn’t stop in time to avoid crashing onto him and Victor.

“I can do it! Sorry, I got so excited when everyone started running that I just went along with it. Give me a second, please,” he said, so polite it was nauseating.

He made the whole thing even worse when he gave Victor a peck on the cheek before he stepped away to face the ghost, ignoring Victor’s aghast voice saying, “Yuuri!”

“It’s fine,” Katsudon replied, smiling at them. 

The ghost continued to float their way, the embodiment of creepy murderous intent. Everyone drew back while Katsudon took a step towards it. Even Yuri, who didn’t care in the slightest for Katsudon and his terrible penchant for karaoke and the dramatics, felt the urge to grab him by the shoulders and drag him away.

There was no way mild-mannered Yuuri stood a chance against a vengeful spirit from the depths of hell himself. He was gonna get killed for them while Yuri just stood by and watched. What the fuck was he even doing, allowing this to happen?

“Katsudon—“ he started to yell, interrupted by the man in question.

“It’s fine,” he repeated. There was an edge to his voice now, a powerful sense of determination that made Yuri freeze in place. Katsuki squared his shoulders and seemed to grow a few centimeters in height and spirit.

Katsuki didn’t waver by a single centimeter as the ghost drew near. He lifted his chin in a way Yuri had never seen him do and stood his ground the entire time. When the ghost was about to touch him, two vaguely transparent raised in his direction, Katsuki lifted his hands and did a vague, complicated motion in the air.

Transfixed, Yuri watched as Katsuki’s hands started to glow and the ghost tried to float backwards and found that it couldn’t. It was like there was an invisible wall behind it. A high-pitched noise filled the air as the glow of Katsuki’s hands grew in intensity, reaching a point where it swallowed everything and blinded them for a few seconds before disappearing.

A few blinks later, when he could see again, he found Katsuki standing in front of them with a smile on his face. There was no ghost in sight.

Before Yuri could say something sensible along the lines of “what the fuck just happened?”, Victor threw himself in Katsuki’s arms and started weeping while simultaneously peppering Katsuki’s faces with kisses.

Yuri looked away, disgusted, and immediately met Otabek’s eyes.

Otabek, who smiled at him and squeezed Yuri’s hand. Yuri squeezed back and dared to give him a small kiss while the idiots proclaimed their eternal love for each other. When he leaned back, he found Otabek gazing at him with an ever bigger smile on his face. Gross. Sort of. Maybe.

Yuri kissed him again.

“Oh? What’s this, young Yurio, have you finally found true love?”

“Say another word and you’re dead to me, Victor Nikiforov,” Yuri said, attempting to cut by the roots. He then turned to Katsuki and started to interrogate him before the conversation got out of hand again. “And you! Explain yourself! What the fuck did you just do?”

“Well, you see, my family actually owns a side business in Hatsetsu where we destroy ghosts for a small fee in return. We usually handle things with the proper equipment, but I always have a Spirited Away bracelet with me for emergencies.”

There was a long, long pause in which no one said anything until Otabek asked, “ _Spirited Away_? Like the movie?”

“Yeah, but I think the bracelets came first,” Katsuki replied.

Yuri squinted, split between thinking the entire world had gone off the rails or that everything suddenly made a whole lot more sense. Yuri had never been a spiritual person, but he had always believed in stuff like karma and energies. Maybe this was just an extension of that.

“That sounds a whole off lot like your family is running a Ghostbusters business.”

Katsuki tapped the side of his nose with his index finger, looking at the ceiling as he thought it. “Well, I’ve never seen that movie, but I guess you could say that, yes.”

“You’ve never seen—“ Yuri’s new rant was cut off when Otabek slapped him in the mouth and then left his hand there, preventing him from speaking.

“It’s been a long night. Can we agree to meet up for breakfast tomorrow so we can discuss this in detail? Yuri and I have questions. A lot of them. But we also need some time to sleep“ —he glared at Yuri, daring him to disagree. Yuri glared back— “and process all of this.”

“Sure.” Katsuki smiled at them with a calm, breezy expression that just made Yuri want to punch him real bad.

There were so many things he wanted to know. Now that the ghost was gone and along with it the threat of bloody murder, Yuri was reluctant to leave the library. He wanted answers, goddammit, not sleep.

He was about to open his mouth and tell everyone this when Otabek squeezed the side of his waist and said, “Tomorrow, please? Both of us are running on fumes and you know it.”

Which, okay, since that they were on the topic Yuri could admit that his body was turning to lead the minute now that the adrenaline was leaving bloodstream. But still. Questions. He had so many.

“Tomorrow,” Otabek repeated.

“Fine.” Yuri sighed, closing his eyes. He wasn’t shocked to find Yuuri and Victor staring at them with two equally puzzled _slash_ adoring expressions, but he sure was done looking at the two of them.

“Tomorrow, nine a.m. sharp at your place. Get the waffle maker out.” Yuri said, waving a finger underneath the two idiots’ noses.

In response, Victor gave him a hug before messing up his hair. “This has been such an interesting night. Goodnight, Otabek, Yurio.” He nodded at them. “I’m such breakfast tomorrow will be just as interesting!”

Otabek nodded back at them, whispering a few farewells while Yuri limited himself to some casual glaring. He realized Victor didn’t look half as shocked as a normal person would have when finding out their boyfriend is a secret ghostbuster, which raised so many new questions it gave Yuri a headache.

“If tomorrow I find out Victor already knew about ghosts and never told me I’m going to literally murder him,” Yuri said as he and Otabek walked side by side to the table where they had left all their stuff.

“And risk him coming back as a ghost to haunt you? Wow, pretty risky.”

Yuri grabbed one of Otabek’s hands and squeezed it. “Stop being so sensible. This is hardly the time for it.”

“Sorry.” Otabek chuckled. “I’m just trying to look out for your best interests.”

“Well. Thanks then. I appreciate it.”

Otabek squeezed back his hand and Yuri was grateful and warm.

Once they got to their table, they shoved their studying materials in their backpacks without any preamble so that they could get home as quick as possible.

“Do you think we can start a Ghostbusters club next semester?” Yuri asked as he and Otabek left the library. Victor and Katsuki were nowhere to be seen, so Yuri assumed they had left already.

“Seriously? We almost died at the hands of a ghost less than twenty minutes ago and you’re already asking if we can face up a bunch of other ones?”

Yuri paused for thought. “Essentially, yes. I have no idea what Katsuki did back there, but if he can do it so can we. Plus, it looked sort of fun once you got over the ‘about to die aspect’.”

“Yura, death isn’t fun.”

“Yes, of course, I know.” Yuri paused again, swinging his and Otabek’s joined hands as they walked. “I’m just saying, a Ghostbusters club. A _real_ Ghostbusters club. That sounds fun, you gotta admit it.”

He did not look at Otabek as he spoke or tried to predict his reaction.

After so many years or friendship, he already knew what his answer would be because deep down, underneath all the layers of honesty and practicality, Otabek was just like him.

“Fine, but we have to look really into it first and you have to listen to Katsuki, I know you don’t like him but he knows what he’s doing and—”

Yuri cut him off with a kiss on the lips, delighting in knowing that he could do this now. They lost themselves in the kiss within seconds, forgetting where they were and everything else they were doing. Without the threat of ghosts, kissing Otabek was a softer affair. Less desperate, but just as warm.

So maybe college life wasn’t easy, and it sure as fuck wasn’t simple, but it wasn’t that terrible either. Case in point: this exact moment when it was just him and Otabek kissing in a deserted street, no Big, Mean and Fugly ghosts in sight (not that Yuri wasn't desperate to fight one as soon as he found out _how_ ).

 

 

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